Welcome to those who have been chosen to play, and to those who choose to lurk as well.

First, I plan on starting the game one week from today. This could shift by a day or two in either direction depending on how real life treats me. That being said, I will give at least 24 hours warning prior to starting the game early, or at least provide notice if it is going to be later.

Second, even though you have provided me with character backgrounds already, I will require one more bit of information from each of you:

"One large assumption that Council of Thieves makes about the PCs is that none of them should be particularly fond of the way the government in Westcrown currently operates. This isn't to say that all the PCs must be anarchists, but a PC who blindly follows the unfair edicts of the established government really won't have a reason to join the Westcrown Rebels." (Bastards of Erebus pg. 10)

So, with that in mind, I need the reason(s) you have a problem with the government as is.

This thread would also be appropriate for further fleshing out of your backgrounds should you so choose, do not feel that you have to, but you are certainly more than welcome to.

The thread is can also be used to express your opinions about the composition of the party, and any suggestions you wish to make prior to the selection of the remaining two slots (as of this posting).

Well, Kev has not so much a problem with the government as he does the governing House, House Thrune. He needs to hook up with some powerful people to keep House Thrune from getting him. If he needs to bring down the government to stay safe, hey, why not!?

Morghrim doesn't really trust government's too much anyway; he's neutral good leaning chaotic and has his own moral compass. He also thinks Westcrown is a cesspool of sin and corruption that needs a good deal of purging. No love for the government here.

Feel free to "cast a vote" for any of the characters you think would be a good fit. I've got my top 2 in mind, but could be swayed by popular opinion.

I believe Berwick will make an interesting character, I love halflings, and hes a very articulate poster who clearly thinks about what he types. He gets my vote, followed closely by Quei Drathan for a thought out bio. Just my 50 cents.

Feel free to "cast a vote" for any of the characters you think would be a good fit. I've got my top 2 in mind, but could be swayed by popular opinion.

I believe Berwick will make an interesting character, I love halflings, and hes a very articulate poster who clearly thinks about what he types. He gets my vote, followed closely by Quei Drathan for a thought out bio. Just my 50 cents.

Seconded for Berwick. He was one that I very much was sad to not be able to include in my CotCT.

Black Addie was a foundling babe taken in by Ol' Meg, the Witch of [insert name of poorest section of Westcrown here]. All Ol' Meg found with the baby girl was an ancient, hand-drawn Harrow deck wrapped in a colorful Varisian pocketed scarf (both rarities in the Chelish city). Meg named the baby ‘Adalyn.’

As Adalyn grew into a young woman, Meg taught her the secrets of witchcraft, which consisted primarily of herbal medicine, fortune-telling, and looking after the poor and downtrodden of the district. It was Meg that taught Adalyn that something was very wrong with their world. That spouses were not meant to huddle at their windows hoping and fearing day after day that their loved ones returned from work safely. That parents were not meant to hush their children when questioned about what happened to their neighbors. That citizens were not meant to avert their eyes and hurry by as guardsmen beat old friends in the street. Most importantly, Meg taught Adalyn that it was time for a change.

Adalyn’s tutelage culminated with the old witch helping the girl to forge a pact with an otherworldly being known only as ‘The Gentleman.’ Not long after, Meg was killed by a dottari patrol for violating a curfew placed on the district. With her death, the old witch’s few belongings and her familiar, an old black tom cat named His Lordship, passed to Adalyn. It was at this time that Adalyn took the name ‘Black Addie’ to reflect that she was now the Witch of [insert name of poorest section of Westcrown here].

Feel free to "cast a vote" for any of the characters you think would be a good fit. I've got my top 2 in mind, but could be swayed by popular opinion.

I believe Berwick will make an interesting character, I love halflings, and hes a very articulate poster who clearly thinks about what he types. He gets my vote, followed closely by Quei Drathan for a thought out bio. Just my 50 cents.

Seconded for Berwick. He was one that I very much was sad to not be able to include in my CotCT.

It was at this time that Adalyn took the name ‘Black Addie’ to reflect that she was now the Witch of [insert name of poorest section of Westcrown here].

The section of Westcrown in question would be Rego Cader also known as the "Dead Sector". Older Wiscrani (residents of Westcrown) may refer to it as Rego Plea, as it was once home to servants, house slaves, and lesser trades. The number of people living in Rego Cader is small these days as the sector has fallen in ruin, housing dens of thieves and possiblly worse.

7 Would the trait Accellerated Drinker apply to mutagens and extracts?

Accelerated Drinker:

Source Cheliax: Empire of Devils 18
You know how to drink a potion efficiently, such as by not using your hands, tossing it in the air and catching it in your mouth, or opening it with your teeth. You may drink a potion as a move action instead of a standard as long as you start your turn with the potion in your hand.

8 Are you okay with us tying backgrounds together? I would think that given Wart's history and current plans that he would at least be an acquaintance of a few of the other characters. Is that okay with you? With the group?

9 Is it okay if a several of us take the firebrand campaign trait? It is just so delicious, but I don't want to step on other peoples toes.

I will continue on,

Wart

I will post what I have so far, and build on it as I get these answered.

5 I have never played an alchemist, so I don't really know them well enough to "optimize" them for efficient play (NOTE: not optimizing for cheese!) Would appreciate input from anyone on this issue.
** spoiler omitted **

Looks fine to me, but if anyone else wants to weigh in, go right ahead.

8 Are you okay with us tying backgrounds together? I would think that given Wart's history and current plans that he would at least be an acquaintance of a few of the other characters. Is that okay with you? With the group?

Absolutely!

9 Is it okay if a several of us take the firebrand campaign trait? It is just so delicious, but I don't want to step on other peoples toes.

Hey, Wart! With respect to tying backgrounds together, if you've ever been to the Ramble Gardens of Rego Cader to collect rare herbs (or purchased them from someone who has been there), then you may have heard of or encountered Ol' Meg or Black Addie, the Witches of Rego Cader.

Black Addie has also taken the Westcrown Firebrand trait. She is particularly distressed by the way members of the nobility have been releasing captives into Rego Cader and then hunting them down like animals for entertainment.

Morghrim was actually completely finished; then I messed it up by copying and pasting a different character over him. I'll finish him today. I wouldn't think of Morghrim as a tank; he's a pretty versatile character, including in combat. Having said that, of all the characters I suppose he's fairly well armoured and meaty. I tend to see an Inquisitor as a divine bard without any charisma; they are fairly jack of all tradey.

Edit: The Holy Warrior variant is disgusting in my opinion... a HD upgrade, BAB upgrade to a high BAB... And the favoured weapon bit is redundant as PF cleric's get that anyway... It's certainly not a variant i'm fond of but it's not my call.

I tend to agree with Morghrim when it come to the Holy Warrior variant, it's just a little too good.

Please stat up Valeron as a standard cleric or if you were wanting to have more of a martial slant, you could stat him out as a paladin.

Let me know what you plan to do.

To be honest, Morghrim is a pretty good secondary healer anyway; with a high heal skill, a healers kit, and he knows the Cure Light Wounds spell. Regardless of what you do, we should be good for heals.

Morghrim has three fighting styles he will switch between depending on the situation; Warhammer/Board, Crossbow/Buckler, and his favourite; the Glaive. He's been doing good where he can around Cheliax, and his character, equipment, skills and spells have been designed to reflect his self-sufficiency.

I am so happy Inquisitor's get guidance as an orison; such an ace spell.

2) Loses domain powers, which usually come in an "always active", something at 1st, something at 8th benefit. And you get 2 of these, one from each domain.

Travel's one of my favorite (not for Iomedae of course), but you give up +10ft/movement, the ability to ignore difficult terrain probably 6+ times a day at 1st, and an 80 ft teleport at 8th.

Water's another good one, with a ranged touch attack 6+ times a day doing 1d6+(1-4) damage.

I'd think (1) is a fairly reasonable swap. For most casters, a "feat" that gives you 1 extra spell slot whenever it becomes available should be worth about the same as a "feat" that gives you +1 BAB every 4 levels or so.

I'd think (2) actually favors the cleric since they get 2 domains to give them special powers in trade for ~1HP/level. I'd give up the d10 Holy Warrior hit dice to drop back down to d8 for access to 2 domains in a heartbeat.

Long story short: I have no problem getting back the cleric goodies, I actually thought I was gimping myself a bit power-wise with Holy Warrior!

The selection was more in looking at the party, seeing the Inquisitor was the meatshield, and willingly accepting some power loss to give the party more options in that department, versus in the spells department - which was actually fairly solid with the Alchemist, Witch and Inquisitor all having good "spell" capabilities. If there was already one less caster, I wouldn't never even touched the variant.

But it totally piqued my curiosity as "too good", I actually expected more objection being "are you sure you really want to give up that many spells?" rather than "this option isn't allowed because it's overpowering"?

Also I remember reading James Jacobs say that they'd likely even *boost* the variant via errata, letting it give the cleric bonus proficiency in Heavy Armor, so as written, isn't it underpowered?

In a DM seat, the only things I've actually disallowed were the Rich Parents and Heritage Weapon traits since for the cost of a "half feat" at first level, they actually give you 2 feats worth of benefit.

Is there a party preference? You guys want your 6th person to be more martial (I'll look at paladin) or more spellsy (I'll pick up the extra spells and domain abilities)?

I'm slowly whittling away all the TBD's on Cadwyn here...he'll be done tonight. I have to roll for gold, pick skills, and finalize the background. Between work and making sure my other game doesn't slow down Cadwyn has just been back-burnered so to speak.

I'm slowly whittling away all the TBD's on Cadwyn here...he'll be done tonight. I have to roll for gold, pick skills, and finalize the background. Between work and making sure my other game doesn't slow down Cadwyn has just been back-burnered so to speak.

Anyway, almost done.

Not a problem at all. I wasn't planning on starting until Monday anyway.

Probably, but i'm not playing WoW and I resent my well-rounded character being written off as 'the tank'.

As for your musings; A full bab equates to a total +5 increase over 20 levels; that's hardly two feats, thats five feats if we are using weapon focus as the bar.

A D10HD is indeed just like taking the toughness feat; which you can also take in addition anyway. A Cleric that has full spellcasting progression, and yet still manages to be as hard as nails as a career soldier sits uneasy with me.

I also dislike the fluff on it; Cleric's are the spellcasters/secondary combatants, and Paladin's are the 'holy warriors'. I'd rather have variant Paladin's for other cornerstone alignments (LE,CE,CG) than have (in my opinion) an awkward variant between the two.

"I'm a holy warrior for my deity"

"Ah... I have met many Paladin's in my time here."

"Erm, well no. I am as tough as a Paladin, and my martial training is just as intense... But i'm a spellcaster, mostly."

Finally, both the Inquisitor and Summoner are not 'good' spellcasters. They use spells to supplement their other abilities, and both the Alchemist and Inquisitor are both about as strong as a bard in spellcasting- our full spellcasters are you and the witch.

Mechanically speaking, the holy warrior is iffy balance wise, but is probably acceptable; I just strongly disagree with the changes; a cleric should not have a D10HD, Full BAB and still be a primary caster.

Probably, but i'm not playing WoW and I resent my well-rounded character being written off as 'the tank'.

Oh no, I wasn't writing you off. Since you were carrying 2 shields, and prior to me joining were the only AC15+ it seemed like were inheriting the role of the guy wading into trouble.

Talomyr said something about being "brutal" when he added me, so I felt the pressure was on to identify and fill any voids.

Quote:

A full bab equates to a total +5 increase over 20 levels; that's hardly two feats, thats five feats if we are using weapon focus as the bar.

I only looked at 1-8, since at 8+ I'd really think anyone would gladly drop getting 3 more BAB over 12 levels for stuff like Blade Barrier, Power Word Stun, Power Word Kill and more. I'm sure the fifth feat spent for that last +1 getting to +5 was less powerful than getting Power Word Kill 1x/day.

Quote:

A Cleric that has full spellcasting progression, and yet still manages to be as hard as nails as a career soldier sits uneasy with me.

Understood. I've seen Dwarf sorcerers have more HP than party fighters. It was weird, but as long as everyone was having fun it seemed alright.

Quote:

Finally, both the Inquisitor and Summoner are not 'good' spellcasters.

With PbP, I'm wary of planning too many adventures ahead, so I was reviewing the party's spells at 1-4. Believe it or not, all 4 have roughly the same amount of spells here:

I know full casters will eventually grab higher level spells faster than the hybrids. It was "I can give up spell slots at early levels since there's 3 other people who will have about the same spells."

Its hard to tell if you favor adding another "tank" (for lack of a simpler word) because you didn't want Morgrim in that role, or you favor adding another "full caster"? I get different vibes depending which part of the post I read.

The character's "fluff needs" are satisfied as a paladin, holy cleric, or regular cleric. Initially, I picked the middle option as a compromise to try to help Morghrim out (specifically). I happily tweaked it back to full cleric, since at Level 3, I'd rather have the 2 extra spells and domain powers over a +1 to hit and what I'd be lucky if were 3 HP.

I will say, always play the character you want (assuming DM is cool with it), not what you think the party needs. We'll be fine regardless of how tanky your character is going to be I think.

I'd much rather you play your cleric as a caster, with full domain powers. But my wishes are somewhat moot as DM isn't allowing the variant anyway.

Thankyou for the consideration on my part, and I apologise for the tone of my earlier post. I've had a hard few days with illness and i'm a little cranky.

As for Morghrim's role, I still don't see him as a tank per se, and I think his role will shift depending on what the party needs more at the time. The teamwork feats in particular are beautiful for their versatility, as are the judgements.

Killing me! Actually I knew that, that was apparently leftover from the +1 BAB thing. I'm used to a Cleric of Heironeous just getting Weapon Focus (longsword) for free at 1st level as part of the domain. Given Iomedae was based on Heironeous, I'm shocked there's not a single option to allow this customization in Pathfinder... am I missing anything besides the PF Setting rule?

Killing me! Actually I knew that, that was apparently leftover from the +1 BAB thing. I'm used to a Cleric of Heironeous just getting Weapon Focus (longsword) for free at 1st level as part of the domain. Given Iomedae was based on Heironeous, I'm shocked there's not a single option to allow this customization in Pathfinder... am I missing anything besides the PF Setting rule?

Outside of the one feat, your character looks good. I see that you are an adventure path subscriber. Would you be interested in the Inheritor's Crusader prestige class in #26?

Looks fairly easy to qualify for, its skills I'd keep close to max ranks, and Iron Will is only a single feat. Something to consider at 3rd level (the feat, that is) if Valeron is still alive, depending on how devout he may be feeling... a lot can happen between creation and 3rd level depending on the adventure(s).

If I grab Scribe, would that open up the option to scribe 1st level scrolls as part of character creation for 12.5g a pop from remaining gold?